Want to lower your grocery spending this year?
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
2M ago
I don’t know about you, but at the very end of December, between the holidays and being sick, we ended up eating way too often and blew our budget. Not to mention that grocery spending was completely out of whack for the majority of 2023. And so, in the spirit of New Things for the New Year, we are working hard on reigning in our grocery spending. In the years of us learning to manage money well, pay off debt, and save up our emergency fund, I’m bringing back a few of my tried and true tricks for fixing a wayward budget. So, if you aren’t already doing this, here is what we’re doing to keep o ..read more
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Stop buying Christmas presents and do this instead…
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
4M ago
Christmas will be here before any of us are ready for it. But there’s one thing you need to make sure you have in place BEFORE you do any Christmas shopping. Serious. Don’t do ANY Christmas shopping until you have this… A Starter Emergency Fund.  If you don’t yet have at least a Starter Emergency Fund of one month’s worth of living expenses, you need to build that up before heading to the stores on Black Friday. I know I’m suggesting you avoid buying anything for Christmas until you get that Starter Emergency Fund built up, and that’s a hard pill to swallow.  But trust me. There’s n ..read more
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How to Keep Up with Life When it Knocks You Down
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
5M ago
I’ve been in a season of life where I honestly feel like I’m drowning most days. Things have been crazy and chaotic. Maybe you’ve found yourself in a similar life situation where it all just feels like a lot happening at once.  When Chaos Hits We had our major house update when we had the entire interior of our home repainted, including the kitchen cabinets and the carpet replaced, which meant that we had to move our entire home to our garage so the work could be done. Then, our three kids started in three different activities, and this is the first time in our lives that’s ever happened ..read more
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How to Make a Survival Budget to Survive a Job Loss
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
6M ago
Job loss is real and painful. I hope that you never have to go through it, but unfortunately, it’s a reality that many face. So how do we survive it? Pat and I survived job loss back in 2008 when the Great Recession happened, and even though there were a lot of things we did wrong, there are some things that we did right. We also learned a lot during that time. Let’s talk about making a Survival Budget of sorts.  What is a Survival Budget I know folks don’t like to think about budgeting, but the reality is when you’re facing a potential layoff, all you end up thinking about is, “How am I ..read more
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How to Close Out a Month and Financially Prepare for a New Month
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
6M ago
It’s a brand new month! Do you know how much you’ve spent this past month? How much you’ve been paid? How much your total bills were this past month? I know these seem like intense questions to throw at you, but they’re important. Too many times, we ignore our money, or we start off a new month with the best of intentions, only to completely forget about those intentions a few days later because life is busy. That doesn’t help us get closer to our goals. We need to know how much we spent and what we spent it on. We need to know how much we saved – was it enough? How much debt did we kill off ..read more
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Money Moves You Keep Neglecting to Make But Should
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
7M ago
This week, our big Money Move is to start the process of changing our main bank. We’ve been using Wells Fargo since we first got married 14 years ago, and honestly, it’s way past time to move on to a more friendly bank. So we’re going to be moving our main hub for our money to a local credit union instead.  However, as anyone who’s ever done this before knows, it’s a pain in the neck. It’s easier to stay with Wells Fargo than it is to change banks. But that doesn’t solve some of the issues we’re having now. The reality is it’s a lot easier to do nothing about it and make zero changes tha ..read more
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How to pay for home projects without going into debt.
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
7M ago
Our home, for the past few weeks, has been total chaos. We’ve been having some much-needed “freshening up” happening. But my goodness. It’s tough when you’re a Type-A keep everything neat and tidy type of gal. We’re having the interior painted and will have new carpet installed before the end of the year.  The reality behind this chaos is that it’s costing us a LOT of money to have it all done. Yes, there are ways to save here, and we’re fortunate enough that my husband is a Contractor, so many of these things we’re getting for cheaper anyway. But the beauty behind the expenses is that t ..read more
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3 Ways to Keep from Wrecking Your Budget
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
7M ago
Even though we’ve been working together to manage our money for years, we still have hiccups with our budget. Unexpected expenses pop up. Or even, as has happened a couple of times, our debit card info gets swiped from a card reader at a gas station, and we find ourselves navigating a fraud claim. All of us know that things can and do happen, and if you’re brand new to budgeting and managing your money, you may feel defeated the moment you hit a stumbling block. But these three lines of defense will prepare you for whatever life throws your way.  1. Sinking Funds I’ve been preaching the ..read more
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How do married couples manage money?
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
8M ago
Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. It’s a big deal for us because we both come from divorced families that only made it 15 years ago. So it’s exciting to watch how our relationship has grown and changed over the years. But I also vividly remember those early years when we were first married. We struggled to figure out life together because we had very little real life examples of what that looked like in a healthy way. That’s not a dig at our families. It’s just a fact. Neither of us was raised in a household that modeled a healthy marriage.  ..read more
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Easy No Heat Weeknight Dinner for under $7 per person for family of five
Jessi Fearon - Real life on a budget.
by Jessi Fearon
8M ago
Even though school is back in session here in Georgia, it’s still hot as all get out. August is always the hottest month for us in the South. That’s why I love a good recipe that doesn’t require me to heat up my house or stand outside in front of a hot grill. And this recipe is just that! This is an easy no heat dinner for any family size but the prices listed below are for my family size (family of five). Now I know this isn’t the traditional way of making Ceviche, but this way is super quick. The most time-consuming part is the chopping, which, if you have one of those handy chopper things ..read more
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